Four Little Letters
by Deshera
Summary: A fllufy Little short about Ritsuka and Soubi where Ritsuka explains his love for books.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Loveless or any of its characters until I find a way this will have to be enough.  
**Rating:** T  
**Warnings:** swears words…well one light swear two times  
**Title:** Four little Letters  
--

Soubi stood outside Ritsuka's room looking in through his window. Once again Ritsuka was sitting in the middle of his bed surrounded by various books. Soubi found Ritsuka's little obsession with book endearing if not a bit odd for someone his age.

As softly as he could Soubi slid the glass door connection the balcony to Ritsuka's room open and slipped in without a reaction on Ritsuka's part. Soubi had learned early on that Ritsuka tended to become deeply engrossed in what ever he was reading no matter how odd the material may be.

--

Of course this was etched into Soubi's knowledge base when he snuck into Ritsuka's room while he was reading and had decided to wait for the boy to finish before talking. Soubi stood there silently for _four_ hours while his young charge devoured the massive novel that he had brought home from the library that day. After all it was rude to interrupt someone while they were reading and Soubi didn't feel like getting kicked out so quickly that night so he just stood there waiting for Ritsuka to finally put his book down.

Soubi went through three cigarettes and several various positions of leaning agents the wall in order to alleviate an annoying persistent leg cramp from standing so damn long. When Ritsuka finally closed his precious book and put it down Soubi was ready for any thing…well almost any thing.

"How was the book?"

Ritsuka whipped around violently to face Soubi and let out a startled squeak as his action caused him to lose his balance and fall off his bed with a slight thud.

"Soubi! When did you get here?"

When? That's when it hit him. Although he had been there for a little over four hours Ritsuka wasn't at any point ignoring him. No, Ritsuka was completely oblivious to the fact that Soubi had even arrived in the first place.

"Oh, just a few moments ago." There was _no way in hell_ that Soubi was ever going to tell him that he had been watching him read for so long. Now that Ritsuka was actually alert and moving he certainly didn't want to be booted out, alas after a few minuets of light banter he had managed to set the temperamental boy off and promptly got booted out and sent home.

After a few more similar events took place Soubi had begun to test the limits of Ritsuka's reading obsession. Knowing full well that once Ritsuka snapped out of his reading induced comma he would get kicked out either way it seemed that Soubi had nothing to loose.

Through trial and error Soubi had managed to learn that as long as he managed to keep his sounds to a minimum he could always enter with out being noticed once Ritsuka was reading. Once inside he had free access to the boy's room and could move about quite freely so long as there were no sudden movements.

As long as he managed to keep himself semi quiet and his movement's fluid Soubi could walk up to the boy, sit down beside him, and pluck a book that wasn't currently being touched. The pivotal factor regarding closeness always seemed to be his shadow. So long as Soubi managed to keep it from getting in the way of Ritsuka's reading he could practically drape himself over the boy with out being noticed.

The over all part was the most fun was finding out about his ability to touch his sacrifice with out being noticed. Even though this area had the most rules it was well worth the angry freak outs and the many times he had been sent home early. From what he had determined he could lightly tickle the boy with a finger for a second before getting a dismissive swat as if he were an annoying bug. About three times ever fifteen minuets seemed to be the limit before Ritsuka realized it wasn't a bug that was lightly tickling his feline ears or shoulder.

Then came the tail. Oh the joy he had while playing with that particular furry appendage. Recently he had found that he could grab hold of tuff of fur from its tip and hold on to it for a good twenty to thirty seconds. Upon taking the tip hostage Ritsuka's entire tail would begin whipping about in an attempt to become free. Often Soubi would end his little game by a slight tug of war before finally letting go of the struggling tail. Once freed it would usually snap back violently giving Ritsuka a slight thump on the back that normally.

"I'm almost done."

The sudden comment snapped Soubi out his daze. It seemed that today was one of the rare days that Ritsuka was fully conscious while reading.

With what looked like only a couple pages left Soubi couldn't help but scan the reading material that Ritsuka had brought home today. Ah, truly the oddest part about Ritsuka's obsession with books. As far as he could tell there would be absolutely no connection from one book to the next. There would be history books mixed with mystery novels lightly sprinkled with a few fantasy books. Some how it seemed that there was only one rule that a book had to pass before would Ritsuka read it, it must contain words…well at least two hundred pages more or less.

After he had scanned through today's nonsensical assortment his gaze fluttered to the title of Ritsuka's current book, The history of writing. So now he was reading a book about reading?

When Ritsuka placed the book down and gave a little stretch Soubi's curiosity got the better of him.

"Was that a good book?"

"Very, it was quite informative and had a lot of interesting things I didn't know."

"Really ant that kind of thing is interesting?"

Ritsuka nodded. "Of course, once the first written words were created history was made…literally. Any thing before that was prehistory since there was no written documentation of it. We know there were people and thing happened but there's no proof. One the written word was created people were able to prove that they existed in the eyes of future generations."

Soubi couldn't help but smile at Ritsuka's enthusiasm. "But didn't people talk to each other. I think spoken language is a bit more important than writing."

Ritsuka gave Soubi a dirty look and frowned. "Words are unreliable. Theirs no substance and they eventually disappear or get distorted from there original content. Not that language isn't important, it's just that writing in general is pretty amazing when you really think about it. Words are every where and we read them all the time with out ever taking the time to even notice."

Soubi perked an eye brow at Ritsuka. "So all words are amazing?"

"Yeah, just think about it. Written text is made up of letters. Each and every letter represents an image that represents a sound. If you put enough sounds together you have a word and every word has a meaning. Put enough words together and you have a sentence. Sentences alone have more meaning than a single word. Once you put enough sentences together you have a paragraph. By repeating this process over and over amazing things have been done. Plays, books, musical scores, inventions and medicine were all written down before they became what they were today."

Ritsuka sighed as he flopped down on his bed. "Your brain recognizes all of this and put it all together in billionths of a second. Writings the same thing just in reverse."

"I suppose I can see what you're getting at although I have to admit I've never really took the time to ponder the very existence of writing in general. The way you talk about it makes it seem some what exhausting though."

Soubi waited for a response only to realize his words had fallen on def ears. His little sacrifice had already fallen asleep.

As he got ready to leave a small idea hit him. Quickly he walked over to Ritsuka's desk and grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scribbled down a note for Ritsuka to find when he finally woke up in the morning.

--

_See you after school._

_Love: Soubi_

_--_

_P.S. Chu_

--

Satisfied with his little note Soubi silently slid outside and left for his home. Ritsuka was right after all, words were amazing. It only took him four little letters to describe his fellings for Ritsuka after all.

--

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_I hope you liked it. I'd greatly appreciate any comments and I will finish my other story soon. Unforeseen circumstances have kept me from my computer for two weeks but now I'm back so my stories should take off real soon._


End file.
